The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for prediction of trips, and more particularly to prediction of trips in gas turbines.
Gas Turbines are typically the main power producing components for combined cycle/independent power plants. A mixture of air and fuel is burnt in a combustor to produce thermal energy/heat that is converted into mechanical energy in the several stages of the turbine. Typically, Fuel/Gas Control Valves (GCV) and Inlet Guide Vanes (IGV) are used to control the amount of fuel and air supplied to the combustor. Furthermore, the GCV and IGV are controlled by servo systems. The servo system, for example, may be an IGV electrohydraulic servo system. Typically, the position of the IGV is controlled by electrohydraulic actuators in the electro hydraulic servo system. Furthermore, generally the servo system may be controlled by a controller. The servo system or one or more components in the servo system may send feedback signals to the controller. The controller uses the feedback signals to correct errors or determine future position of the IGV. However, sometimes one or more of the components in the IGV system may fail or may have errors, and the components may therefore generate erroneous feedback signals. In general, there may be several types of failures in an IGV system, such as, a servo fault, a linear voltage differential transformers (LVDT) failure, a valve jamming, hydraulic oil leakage, hydraulic pressure fluctuation, filter choking, or the like. The controller may control the future position of the IGV based upon the erroneous feedback signals. The determination of the future IGV position based upon the erroneous feedback signals may result in an inappropriate future position of the IGV. The inappropriate position of the IGV may cause damage to the gas turbine.
A turbine controller may identify such imminent damage, and may initiate tripping of the gas turbine. A trip is a rapid uncontrolled shutdown of the gas turbine that is initiated by the turbine controller to prevent damage. Such unwarranted trips may cause revenue loss and also reduce life of turbine components. Hence, there is a need for predicting an impending trip reliably and preventing loss of useful life of a gas turbine.